Not so scary Halloween pumpkin
In my country, we do not
celebrate Halloween. At least not the way they do it in America. Except for
sporadic costumed parties (mainly intended for students) for us October 31st is the completely
normal day. Like any other. But that does not mean that we do not
have horror stories from which the hair rising on the head and entire body shudder
and have goosebumps. But, more about that
later.
We do not turn our homes into haunted castles from which zombies, witches, and werewolves leap off, and we don't give sweets to children in cute costumes (our
kids do not wear them). We do not gouge
pumpkins into scary figures, but we use
them for something much, much nicer. And tastier. For one of my favorite treat
- a traditional Serbian pumpkin pie - called Bundevara.
One of the tasks of the members
of Makin's Clay® Design Team was to create something for Halloween. I don't
like ghosts, bats and some of these creepy creatures, so I remembered
gouged pumpkins. I'm sorry, but something in this hairy head of mine just does
not allow me to connect a pumpkin with something terrible. Whenever I think of
the pumpkin I just remember my grandmother's delicious pumpkin pie. And pumpkin
baked with sugar in the oven. And pumpkin risotto. And the thick, creamy
pumpkin soup... Uh, I'm hungry!
As you can see, in my
hairy head pumpkin is associated with delicious food, and it's simply not
possible for me to create an intimidating figure. My pumpkin made
of Makin's Clay® looks perfectly normal, such as those we use for making
pies. Sweet and delicious. And it can be worn as well as a brooch and as a
necklace. Again I create a multi-functional
piece of jewelry.
And now a bit about those horror stories... Do
you know that vampire is one of the Serbian words (almost certainly the
only one) that is widely accepted in all languages of the world? Vampir
(vampire) is Serbian word which comes from our ancient (pagan) religion, and
it's old about 1.500 years. In recent years, thanks to social networks, we use
a lot of English words in everyday speech (liking, sharing, printing...), but
it's nice to know that the rest of the world, especially those from
English-speaking countries, uses one of our words.
Maybe not every day, but then at least before, during and after Halloween. By
the way, the word vampire is, since 1734, included in the Oxford English
Dictionary and with the specified Serbian origin.
Serbian folk tales are full of
gruesome narratives about vampires. In these stories, some of which date back
to the time before Christianity, vampires are not even a bit sweet and lovely
as Edward Cullen (and the gang) from the Twilight saga
by Stephenie Meyer. Oh, no! They are described as very, very frightening
creatures. As inanimate beings that you definitely would not want to meet.
Scarier than the Count Dracula
(for which they, after the publication of the novel by Irish author Bram Stoker
in 1897, have become so popular all over the world). There are even written
historical documents related to vampires, or at least the belief in their
existence. For fear of vampires, Serbs were, even after receipt of
Christianity, burned their deceased, fearing that they would otherwise arise from the dead, which is why in Dušan's Code (1349)
is explicitly prohibited the excavation of corpses and their throbbing or
burning.
The notion of a vampire in
western Europe was first mentioned in the Austrian magazine "Vossiche
Zeitung", number 98, which was published in 1725, at a time when Austrian
Empire government of Serbia in the south to town Stalać. The magazine writes about a certain Petar Blagojević (sometimes written as Peter Plogojowitz) from village Kisiljevo. Petar, who is considered the
first known vampire (and not, as many thinks,
the iconic Romanian prince Vlad the Impaler), died in 1725, and two months
after his death residents of the area start inexplicably to die (nine of them
in a week). Before death, all of the residents claimed that late Petar appears to them. Frightened villagers requested
permission from the Austrian authorities to open Blagojević case. In the
presence of the priest that is done, as well the ritual with stabbing (after
what allegedly fresh blood is leaked from his dead body) and burning the corp. The
mysterious deaths were then stopped. All this is, also, written in the report of astonished captain Frombald send to
authorities in Vienna.
Serbs have even more horrifying
stories about vampires (eg, about the vampire Sava Savanović),
as well of various other mysterious creatures, but I do not want to scare
you so much that you start to run
away from my blog. And, long post is beginning
to be my habit. So... For those who
celebrate - Happy Halloween! For those who do not - I recommend you to make Bundevara (traditional Serbian pumpkin
pie) by this
recipe. And for both of you I say - make something (perhaps pumpkin)
with Makin's Clay®. And... Beware of vampires.
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